Miguel Indurain

Le Tour de France Record

Tour Rides:12

Yellow Jersey Wins:5 (a record)

Stage Wins:12

Although it can be said that Indurain is perhap's the most unsuccessful of our five time champions because he has only won twelve stages in twelve races and has not won any other jersey other than Yellow,he is the only one to have dominated to the extent of winning all five of his vistories in a row.

Miguel rode his first Tour in 1985 ,he did not make an immediate impact like his three predecessors and was unable to finish the same happened in'86 however in 1987 he did finish ,although it was only in 97th place it was the start of a building process that would see him gradually work his way up.In '88 he finished 47th more or less sacrificing himself for team leader Pedro Delgado(second overall)and again in'89 even though he won his first stage ,stage 9 to Cauterets and finished 17th overall by far his best finish.

So far Indurain hasn't left his mark on Le Tour he rode five times and won one stage but in 1990 as Greg Lemond takes his third Tour Miguel is beginning to shine from behind Delgado.He was becomming more powerful in the mountains,which for a tall man is no mean feat and more confident in time-trials by the end of the Tour he came in tenth and although Pedro was fourth it was time for him to step aside and let the young blood come through.

By the time the 1991 Tour came round Indurain was poised to show the cycling world just what he could do.The 1991 Tour was supposed to be a fourth lap of honour for Lemond on his way to win five like everyone thought that he would ,and it started well for the American taking the Yellow Jersey early in the race,but this was not the Lemond of old the minute the road went up he cracked and on the thirteenth stage to Val Louron Indurain took his chance as Chiappucci was winning the stage "Big Mig"was riding into Yellow.With a strong ride in the Alps and stage win in the final time-trial his first Tour win was in the bag.

Miguel's second Tour win would be a straight forward affair,after the first week when the young pretenders had thier go the master stepped up and in the time-trial at Luxembourg he floored the competition leaving Lemond and Bugno over three minutes behind then in the Alps he took the leaders jersey and his second victory was assured.

Like the previous year Indurain was riding a different race to everyone else after the sprinters squabbling over the race lead in the opening week Indurain took-over in the first time-trial and would not let go of his lead till he got to Paris and picked up the coveted Rose Bowl for the third time.

The Tour de France was now in danger of becomming predictable as usual Indurain annihilated the competition in the first time-trial in Perigieux and in the Yellow Jersey he was once again to good for the rest.On the climb of the Hautacam the big Spaniard dropped most of his challengers who were now fighting for second.

Indurain was now in the position to do what no other cyclist had done before to win five consecutive Tour de France.Big Mig started early with an attack on the seventh stage into Liege taking an early advantage over his rivals.The very next day he was away again in the time-trial at Huy he took the Yellow Jersey and with a strong ride in the Alps he was well on his way to his fifth Tour,or so we thought.France Laurent Jalabert attacked early on stage 12 to Mende opening up a good lead and almost taking the leaders jersey but it was too little too late and apart from that one scare Miguel Indurain rode into Paris as the first man to win five Tour de France in a row.

In 1996 BigMig was back to try for his sixth Tour but a combination of cold,bad weather and a lack of form ment he would struggle .Even so he completed the 3907km to finish 11th a good ride from a great champion and it was to be his last in the Tour joining the great riders who have won "Le Tour de France" five times.I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever win it six times then i realise that i wouldn't want them to.To equal a record set by great men like Anquetil, Merckx,Hinault and Indurain showed be prize enough if not too much for the future champions of the Tour.

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